Chinese Culture Essay

Every person possesses his or her own identity. Each has his or her own distinct personal traits that are acquired from both biological and social influences. The social environment is comprised of people, experiences and conditions that influence one’s society. Society, therefore, is responsible in fabricating a person’s characteristics. People conform to the existing cultures in society and assimilate in it.

Parents rear their children based on the culture that they have been brought up with as well as the set of norms and values that they adhere to. As such, every parent has also been raised according to the culture that their parents had also adhered to. Culture is a predetermined set of values in a society. It has been redefined by a potluck of arts, ritual, traditions and even political and economical systems. People’s attitude, behavior, customs, philosophy, lifestyle, and tradition all make up one’s culture.

Culture was developed alongside the society’s needs, history and changes. Society forms its traditions and beliefs based on their culture. As a society grows and more people come to settle and assimilate in it, a more staple and established culture is developed, slowly adapting to the people’s changing needs. When people deviate or do not conform from social expectations, they are accused of deviance.

What makes a culture? And what is its scope? If culture is responsible for an individual’s change of attitude and molds the value orientation of society, then people have to take into account the significant contribution of religion and ideology in the world’s cultural differences (Gregorios, 1992).

China’s culture is one of the richest culture in Asia as the different aspects of their culture was developed even during the ancient times. Chinese culture, ideologies and principles have been able to influence its neighboring countries’ culture and traditions.

Cultural Factors

Gender

China is a patriarchal society, wherein various fields are dominated by the male specie. Although many claim that there is gender parity in the contemporary society, gender inequality still exists and prevails in some aspects of society. Furthermore, media reinforces the idea of gender bias through stereotypical representation of sexes.

China gives high importance to sons than to daughters. This is mainly due to the customs of China. Boys will soon take over on the businesses of the father and will need to protect the daughters and the other female members of the family.

China’s perception towards gender is developed even during childhood years, wherein customs and tradition dictate that the male gender is above the other. Another contributing factor to the prevailing gender bias and stereotypes among children is the explicit roles and beliefs they hear and see in adults. Children tend to internalize the stereotypical remarks of adults (Bayley, Levy & Killen, 2008).Children perceive the traditional roles of men and women; as such, children tend to look at men as dominant and superior, while they look at women as inferior and nurturing.

People can attribute the development of gender bias among children greatly on the environmental influences that the children are exposed to. Aside from the role of media, the society must not neglect the environmental influences such as parents, peers and school experiences that the children are subjected to. These influences have significant impact on children’s socialization to their adult roles. Children are exposed to home environment where they may have patriarchal or matriarchal set-up.

Marriage

China is a large country composed of different nationalities. These nationalities adhere to different marriage customs and tradition. However, China’s marriage customs is composed of complicated steps and procedures. Marriage in China is never founded on true love and meeting the person’s better half. On the side of the groom, marriage determine the family’s prosperity and even the future fame of the family. While on the side of the bride, it is about marrying someone who will lead her in to fame and fortune (TravelChinaGuide.com, 2009).

Chinese marriage is not decided by the groom and the bride. It is the parents’ decision of whom their son or daughter should marry. The two sets of parents consider the conditions of the marriage. Social status and wealth are among the greatest consideration in marriage. For example, if a boy’s family is well-off or holds a position in the government, the parents will never allow their son to marry a girl from a poor family. When the parents consider the desires and that the family conditions are similar and can be matched, the wedding procedures will follow (TravelChinaGuide.com, 2009). Up to the present, these customs and traditions are strictly followed, especially of those who belong in the wealthy family. Today, Chinese marriage is about the marriage of the businesses of the two families.

Family

China’s family is very small as the nation employs birth control policies. China is known for having the biggest population in the world, and as such implements a one-child policy that limits the couple on having one child within the five-year planning period from 2006 to 2010. Though the intention of the government is fairly for the benefit of its people, the imposition and implementation of China’s birth control policy brought different impacts in Chinese societies. Sociologists often quoted that the family is the smallest unit of society. Family is its fundamental unit of structure. In China’s setting, family solidarity is very eminent in their society. Most Chinese families are extended families composing of three generations still living together. The birth control policy brought changes on the structure of the Chinese families as well as the Chinese communities.

The birth control policy of China caused some benefits with regards to women’s issues. The implementation of China’s one-child policy became beneficial to women. The detrimental effects of unplanned pregnancy mentioned in the first part of this paper can be solved by the imposition of birth control policy; and in the case of China, they gradually and unconsciously prevented some problems that their women might suffer from.

Economics

It is true that one of the fastest growing countries in terms of economic activity and growth is China. Their average growth rate amazingly grew after their various political struggles. Trade is one of China’s economic assets. Indeed, China is one of the big players in the global economic trade, with an increase of 35% and 36% in exports and imports respectively. With China’s booming economic status, it is speculated that China will have the largest economy in the future. As China emerges as a powerful country in the field of economics, it will soon pose threats to the nations occupying the top spot (Morrison, 2005).

China’s economy is continuously growing from a small span of time. China also have the potential to surpass the First World’s economies because of the different aspects of China’s economy that bring monetized contribution to the state. China also tends to dominate the international trade because of the variety of cheap products they offer.

Conclusion

Chinese culture is one of the most popular cultures in Asia as it greatly influenced other nations. China has a different view towards gender, even when feminist ideologies are known worldwide. China gives high regard to men. China also has a very complicated marriage customs and tradition that is viewed to be the intermarriage of the family and the family’s wealth and social status. China significantly implements birth control policies that greatly affect the familial structure of traditional Chinese society. Lastly, China is slowly emerging as a strong economic nation that has the potential to surpass First World’s industries.

China is a very interesting country that is composed of rich and colorful cultural customs and traditions. China is slowly gaining popularity, especially in the economic aspect, it is interesting to find out how they manage to do this despite their very rigid communist society. The marriage customs and tradition of the China is one of the interesting aspects of Chinese culture for the long process of marriage and conditions involved. More importantly, it is interesting to discover the factors played by the different religions and disciplines that eventually shaped the Chinese culture.

Gregorios, P. M. (1992). A Light Too Bright: The Enlightenment Today : an Assessment of the Values of the European Enlightenment and a Search for New Foundation. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.